Man gets 15 to life for murder of young mom in bar brawl

Burying his daughter, David Henderson said, was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do.

On Tuesday, Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Frederick McDonald sentenced Hector Alvarado, Jr. — the man who stabbed Christina Henderson to death — to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

“She is truly missed,” Mr. Henderson said of his 23-year-old daughter, who was the mother of two young daughters. “We will never completely recover. Time does not heal all wounds. It just keeps moving.”

Alvarado, 40, of 637 Sterling St. was convicted by a jury Aug. 23 of murder in Ms. Henderson’s Jan. 1 death but acquitted of felonious assault in the wounding of Ms. Henderson’s fiance, Stacey Bowen, 26, who was stabbed in the arm.

Neither Alvarado nor his attorney, John Thebes, made any statements before the mandatory sentence was imposed.

Mr. Thebes said afterward that Alvarado intends to appeal his conviction.

A jury found Alvarado guilty of stabbing Ms. Henderson in the neck during what was described as an all-out bar brawl toward the end of a New Year’s Eve party at the former South Beach Bar and Grill on Alexis Road.

Prosecutors said they believed Alvarado was fighting with Mr. Bowen about 2 a.m. when he swung at Mr. Bowen with a knife and inadvertently stabbed Ms. Henderson. Much of the case rested on surveillance video shot at the bar that night, and while it did not show the stabbing occur, a witness testified that he saw Alvarado — who has distinctive tattoos on his head and body — take a swing at Ms. Henderson. She then grabbed her neck, he told the jury.

“The impact of this offense on the victim’s family ... is severe,” Judge McDonald said. “The victim in this case was a young woman with two young daughters, who at the time were 2 and 4, and as a result of this defendant’s actions they will never know their mother.”

The judge cited Alvarado’s lengthy juvenile and adult criminal record, but said the law required him to impose the mandatory 15-years-to-life sentence.